Embrace disruption: Microsoft startup boss Rahul Sood

As general manager and partner at Microsoft Ventures , Rahul Sood is tasked with bringing in a new entrepreneurial flavour to the software maker. The 39-year-old technology entrepreneur, who sold the luxury computer business VodooPC to Hewlett Packard in 2006, now runs a seed fund and eight accelerators globally for Microsoft. Sood, a lover of surfing, racing-cars and cycling, told Peerzada Abrar that India must embrace disruption if it is to become a startup hub on a par with the United States and Israel. Here are edited excerpts from an interview.

You recently consolidated various programmes into Microsoft Ventures. What prompted this?

We wanted to create one place for the startup to come to. Secondly, be clear about our value proposition, which is — Microsoft is a big company , we are the original startup and we know how to build and create software at scale. And if you think of Microsoft as a platform company, Microsoft Ventures is the platform for building businesses .

How mature is the Indian startup ecosystem when compared to Israel and US?

The more mature ecosystems are running on all cylinders. In India there is still lot of protectionism that goes on. There is not a lot of appetite for disruption for some reason. We need to see an increased appetite in disruption. I also think it only helps entrepreneurs if they can bring in more balanced teams, put more design thinking into their teams and really support genderdiverse teams. In Israel it is interesting how everyone participates in the ecosystem there. What makes Israel strong is the government support. What is weird in India is that entrepreneurship runs in our blood , but why is it that there is not as much government support as there is in Israel?

What does MS Accelerator think about India?

We love India, because there are so many problems to be solved and there are so many talented people. And there is an inherent entrepreneurship in the people of India. The biggest challenge in India is discoverability . So having those innovations to be discovered is a challenge.

You are the founder of luxury computer creator VoodooPC. How do Indian startups rate on design and user experience?

I think it is a gap. What is sad about that is that the arts and entertainment in India are probably among the biggest industries in the world. Yet we are not encouraging arts and entertainment when it comes to technology.

There are critics who find it hard to use Microsoft and innovation in the same sentence because of past bets.

When critics question Microsoft in terms of innovation, I say the company has everything from consumer entertainment, gaming , Xbox , Skype, Yammer and things like that. We have backend cloud enterprise solutions, we have so many different things, and there is so much innovation happening that maybe all of it is not visible to people.

I guess most people tend to focus on consumer products. There is plenty of innovation happening and there are lots of areas we can improve . And what is good about the company is that we are always listening and improving. Windows 8 is an example about how we are improving . We launched Windows 8.1 by listening to customers and there are lots of improvements on it. The innovation is changing. Disruption can happen with five people in a garage.